Leopard Wrasse Pair

[josh27]

Just though I would get some advice to whether or not I should try having a pair of Leopard Wrasses in my tank. As of right now I have a pair of clowns, a midas blenny, and a flame angel. My tank is 60 gallons with about 3-4 inch sand bed. Would my tank be suitable for a pair?

 

[Ralph ATL]

most likely not, as they need very peaceful fish as neighbors.

how long has the tank been set up?

 

[josh27]

My tank has been up for almost 9 months and all my fish seem quite peaceful

 

[Korrine]

imo the wrasse should have been added after the blenny. They all "get along" now b/c they know what area George has and what rock is Sheila's etc. Adding a new fish upsets the order for a bit. This wrasse is a fragile fish.

Have you read this:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-07/hcs3/index.php

 

[rogerwilco357]

would moving around the aquascaping reset the boundaries?

 

[Bret61081]

my blenny is aggressive towards similarly shaped fish but leaves my wrasses alone. Ive added a few wrasses after my golden sailfin and it leaves them alone! just hate gobys and other Blennys!

 

[Korrine]

I'm more worried about the clowns and angel. Not the blenny. He should've added the blenny then waited a good long while then the wrasses and clowns/angel last.

Re-arranging rocks could help.

 

[josh27]

I'm not too worried about my clowns they have just recently been added to the tank and they are babies so they couldn't pose much of if any threat to the wrasse. I also have a 29g bio cube so if the flame angel was bullying the wrasse I would just move it into that tank for a couple of weeks

 

[Korrine]

sounds ok as long as you could catch the angel w/out stressing everyone out to much Let us know how it turns out!!

 

[josh27]

Now I just have to wait for my LFS to get the pair in said about a couple of weeks so hopefully everything goes well. Too bad they wouldn't just sell me the pair in their display tank:sad2:

 

[Tylt33]

Leopards have about a 25% survival rate based on experience and what I've read others posting. My male-female combination has worked out very poorly and I will now have to separate my male from his harem. The same happened to iamwrasseman.

 

[josh27]

My LFS got the pair in 2 days ago and I can pick them up on Saturday. Hopefully my pair works out ok.

 

[snorvich]

Basically your tank is too small. They need copepods as their main source of food.

 

[Korrine]

Steve, I respectfully disagree with the more that I read. They can be trained to take prepared foods and the hardest part is acquiring a healthy specimen to begin with.

 

[snorvich]

Training mandarins or leopard wrasses to eat prepared food does not solve the fact that mandarins and leopards eat constantly. All of my leopards eat PE mysis as does my pair of mandarins. However, since I only feed that tank twice per day, that would not sustain them. We aquarists don't feed constantly and mandarins do not compete well for food. I have both leopards and mandarins long term which means years not months. But we can certainly agree to disagree.

 

[Korrine]

What size tank do you keep your leopards in?

 

[snorvich]

What size tank do you keep your leopards in?

That tank is a 240 gallon tank. There is also a scooter blenny which eats frozen as well as copepods. I have considered a pair of mandarins but am worried about them having enough natural prey.

 

[treylane]

Hrm... A bit of a different take than these guys, but if your 60g is a 4' tank, I'd say you're likely to be able to house at least a single leopard just fine. They DO seem to do well on two feedings a day, just squeeze in a third feeding on weekends or when you get a chance. They will learn to avoid "reasonable" bits of aggression from other fish - most of the ones you listed aren't known for being particularly psycho, and so long as the angel doesn't fixate on the wrasse that shouldn't be a problem either.

 

[josh27]

Well the leopard wrasse are looking great after finishing a 3 hr acclimation. Put them in the tank and they swam around for a few minutes. They seemed to be swimming great and breathing normally. It looks like they suffered very minimal stress.

 

[snorvich]

There are three thresholds: the first is one day, the second is one week, and the third is one month. If you make it for a month you should be good. Tonight, they will dive into the sand and hopefully come out when they smell food. You MUST have PE mysis as their initial food.